20211224 Question and Answer Session

Jayapatākā Swami: Today we have possibly one hundred devotees, from Kurukṣetra who are here and we will take some questions from them first and then from the virtual devotees.

Question: Mahārāja you mentioned that one should practice bhakti with determination, we see you as a personification of this condition. In so many years, you have been practicing and spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness under difficult conditions, across the world. So what is the secret of your determination in your service to Śrīla Prabhupāda? So we can follow in your footsteps.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, I told Śrīla Prabhupāda that, “My father he said he would turn my name over to the American Army to fight in the Vietnam war and die because he was very angry that I became a Hindu.” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “It is better to be in Kṛṣṇa’s army.” So I have been serving in Kṛṣṇa’s army. He told me to go to India and I came here in 1970, he told to become an Indian citizen and now I am an Indian citizen, and like that I am trying to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda, by serving him I feel very blissful.

Question: Could you share some pastimes, your personal pastimes with Śrīla Prabhupāda which specially inspired you to dedicate your life in his service?

Jayapatākā Swami: Someone told me that whenever I see the spiritual master, I should praise him and humble myself and I should ask for blessings. When I saw Śrīla Prabhupāda I would do that. One time, I said Śrīla Prabhupāda, “You are very merciful and I am a fool.” He said, “Yes!” Then I told Śrīla Prabhupāda, “I want to serve you life after life.” He said, “Why do you want to make me come back?” I thought, “What did I say wrong?” Then I said, “I want to serve you even life after life!” Meaning if I don’t go back to Godhead, I still want to serve him. Like that I found that Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was a person, he was very personal. And so, his personal quality was something very endearing to me.

Question: What is your instruction for the next generation of ISKCON?

Jayapatākā Swami: Follow Lord Caitanya’s advice, follow Śrīla Prabhupāda’s advice, read Bhagavad-gītā, read Nectar of Devotion, Nectar of Instruction, Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, do that systematically. And you will find all the questions you have answered. The next generation, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the best of him was in his books. So, we encourage everyone to read Śrīla Prabhupāda books. He wanted a temple in Kurukṣetra because that was the place where Kṛṣṇa spoke the Bhagavad-gītā and he wanted to make the Bhagavad-gītā very famous. He was asked to recommend what version of the Bhagavad-gītā should be read. Then, he said, he could not recommend any, hundreds of commentaries were there but the speakers put their own ideas, some were better than others. But when he wrote Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, that he did not say that Kṛṣṇa says this, but He means that. He explained exactly that Kṛṣṇa is saying this. So that makes it very easy to understand. Now you are all from Kurukṣetra I heard. Reading Bhagavad-gītā is our first book we should give attention to. From the Bhagavad-gītā we go on to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam etc. Alright!

Any questions on the chat?

Question: There are so many challenges which took place in Māyāpur while you were building the temple and we still see so many challenges which are coming. So Mahārāja, how do you deal with all those challenges?

Jayapatākā Swami: Whenever A challenge came up, I remembered my spiritual master, tried to carry out his instructions and that made it very easy.

Lakṣmī Rādhā devī dāsī, Mathurādeśa: Śukadeva Gosvāmī was an impersonalist devotee before he heard the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from Vyasadeva. But we also hear that Śukadeva was Rādhārāṇī’s parrot. That he was chased by Lord Śiva when he heard the Bhāgavatam, etc. so how is it that such a dear associate of Rādhārāṇī acted as an impersonalist worshiper, though he hears the Bhāgavatam from Lord Śiva as well as Vyāsadeva, when he was in the womb?

Jayapatākā Swami: We have to take the instructions at face value. When he was in the womb of his mother, he had impersonal realization. When he was instructed how by meditating on Kṛṣṇa, he could transcend the material world, so then he took birth and practiced bhakti-yoga. The other aspect is very esoteric, and that is a separate thing. Now if there are any questions in today’s class?

Question: Although we hear many of the times how to be determined in following the instructions of the spiritual master, but the same way you showed from your life how to be determined and follow the instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda, but somehow or other we do not get this kind of trust or determination to follow the instructions of our spiritual master and Śrīla Prabhupāda. We are not able to follow so wonderfully the process. What can we do, we are going up and sometimes coming down in our service, going very very much down. How do we develop this determination in our life?

Jayapatākā Swami: you see if you think it over that by following your mind or following some ordinary person that persons in the material world are subject to four defects. They have imperfect senses, they make mistakes, they cheat and they are in illusion. So just like you have the sun, we think oh, it is just about an inch and a half. But we know the sun is much bigger than the earth. So we have imperfect senses, so why not listen to śāstra, sādhu and guru who are free from these defects? The śāstra gives us the Absolute Truth, the sādhus are practicing bhakti-yoga and the guru explains the śāstra so that we can understand it and apply it in our life. So of course, as long as you have determination, it is a question of who do you want to follow? Just like I ask people, how many of you have crazy bosses? Everybody raised their hands! They all thought they had crazy bosses. So if you find a person who is a real devotee, a real sādhu, then naturally you want to follow.